A panel discussion on the pros, cons, ins and outs of the Iran deal, featuring Richard Betts, Stuart Gottlieb, Robert Jervis, Richard Nephew, Danielle Pletka, and Gary Sick

Seating is limited. Advance registration is strongly encouraged: register here. For questions contact Arastoo Taslim at at2986@columbia.edu.

Richard Betts is Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of War and Peace Studies in the department of political science, Director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Director of the International Security Policy program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He was Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations for four years and is now an adjunct Senior Fellow there. Betts was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution until 1990 and adjunct Lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He also served at different times on the Harvard faculty as Lecturer in Government and as Visiting Professor of Government. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. A former staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the National Security Council, and the Mondale Presidential Campaign, Betts has been an occasional consultant to the National Intelligence Council and Departments of State and Defense, served on the Military Advisory Panel for three Directors of Central Intelligence in the 1990s and later on the External Advisory Board for the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and was a member of the National Commission on Terrorism. He lectures frequently at schools such as the National War College, Foreign Service Institute, and service academies. He served briefly as an officer in the U.S. Army. Betts’ first book, Soldiers, Statesmen, and Cold War Crises (Harvard University Press, 1977) was issued in a second edition by Columbia University Press in 1991. He is author of two other Columbia University Press books: Enemies of Intelligence (2007) and American Force (2012); three books published by the Brookings Institution: Surprise Attack (1982), Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance (1987), and Military Readiness (1995); coauthor and editor of three other Brookings books: The Irony of Vietnam (1979), Nonproliferation and U.S. Foreign Policy (1980), and Cruise Missiles (1981); editor of Conflict After the Cold War, Fourth Edition (Pearson, 2013); and coeditor of Paradoxes of Strategic Intelligence (Cass, 2003). Betts has published numerous articles on foreign policy, military strategy, intelligence, conventional forces, nuclear weapons, arms trade, collective security, strategic issues in Asia and Europe, and other subjects in professional journals. His writings won five prizes, and he received the International Studies Association’s ISSS Distinguished Scholar Award in 2005 and MIT’s Doolittle Award in 2012.

Stuart Gottlieb is Adjunct Professor of International Affairs and Public Policy at the School of International and Public Affairs, where he teaches courses on American foreign policy, counterterrorism, and international security. He also serves as faculty director for SIPA’s certificate degree program in International Relations, and is a member of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. Prior to joining SIPA in 2003, Gottlieb worked for nearly five years in the United States Senate, first as senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, and subsequently as policy adviser and chief speechwriter for Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. He has also worked on several political campaigns, including New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s reelection campaign in 1997 and presidential campaign in 2008. Gottlieb continues to consult with political and business leaders, and regularly publishes op-eds and other policy-related articles. A second edition of his book, Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Conflicting Perspectives on Causes, Contexts, and Responses (CQ Press), was published in 2013, and he is currently working on a book titled Experimental Power: The Rise and Role of America in World Affairs (Yale University Press). Gottlieb holds a B.A. in political science and journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in international relations from Columbia University.

Robert Jervis is Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics at Columbia University. His most recent book is Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War (Cornell University Press, 2010). His System Effects: Complexity in Political Life (Princeton University Press, 1997) was a co-winner of the APSA’s Psychology Section Best Book Award, and The Meaning of the Nuclear Revolution (Cornell University Press, 1989) won the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is also the author of The Logic of Images in International Relations (Princeton University Press, 1970; 2d ed., Columbia University Press, 1989), Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton University Press, 1976), The Illogic of American Nuclear Strategy (Cornell University Press, 1984), American Foreign Policy in a New Era (Routledge, 2005), and over 150 other publications. He was President of the American Political Science Association in 2000-01 and has received career achievement awards from the International Society of Political Psychology and ISA’s Security Studies Section. In 2006 he received the National Academy of Science’s tri-annual award for behavioral sciences contributions to avoiding nuclear war and has received honorary degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Venice. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1978-79 and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Political and Social Science and the American Philosophical Society. He chairs the Historical Review Panel for CIA and is an Intelligence Community associate. His current research includes the nature of beliefs, IR theory and the Cold War, and the links between signaling and perception. Jervis received his B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Richard Nephew joined SIPA’s Center for Global Energy Policy in 2015 directly from his role as Principal Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy at the Department of State, a position he held since February 2013. Nephew also served as the lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team negotiating with Iran. From May 2011 to January 2013 Nephew served as the Director for Iran on the National Security Staff where he was responsible for managing a period of intense expansion of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Earlier in his career he served in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the State Department and in the Office of Nonproliferation and International Security at the Department of Energy. Nephew holds an M.A in Security Policy Studies and a B.A. in International Affairs, both from The George Washington University.

Danielle Pletka is the senior vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. As a long-time Senate Committee on Foreign Relations senior professional staff member before joining AEI, she was the point person for the Committee on Middle East, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan issues. Pletka writes regularly on the Middle East and South Asia, US national security, terrorism, and weapons proliferation for a range of American newspapers and magazines. Her writings and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, and POLITICO, among others. She has testified before Congress on the Iranian threat and other terrorist activities in the Middle East. Pletka is the co-editor of Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats (AEI Press, 2008) and the co-author of Containing and Deterring a Nuclear Iran (AEI Press, 2011) and Iranian influence in the Levant, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan (AEI Press, 2012). Her most recent study, “America vs. Iran: The competition for the future of the Middle East,” was published in January 2014.

Gary Sick is Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute and an adjunct professor at the School of International and Public Affairs. Sick served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. He was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. Sick is a captain (ret.) in the U.S. Navy, with service in the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. From 1982 to 1987, Sick served as deputy director for international affairs at the Ford Foundation, where he was responsible for programs relating to U.S. foreign policy. He is a member (emeritus) of the board of Human Rights Watch in New York and founding chair of its advisory committee on the Middle East and North Africa. He is the executive director of Gulf/2000, an international online research project on political, economic and security developments in the Persian Gulf, being conducted at Columbia University since 1993 with support from a number of major foundations. Sick was voted one of the top five teachers in 2009 at the School of International and Public Affairs. He is the author of All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter with Iran (Random House, 1985) and October Surprise: America’s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (Random House, 1991). Gary Sick holds a B.A. from the University of Kansas, an M.S. from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.